From basketball and lawn tennis courts to CrossFit gymnasium and royal weddings , Reebok has left a lasting scar on global civilisation . Though now a part of the Adidas Group and in effect out of the " sneaker wars " with the big two ( NikeandAdidas ) , Reebok is still a stain with a home name and a rich story of tech and way founding .
1. THE COMPANY FOUNDERS WANTED A NAME THAT MEANT “NOTHING.”
When pick out a name for their company in 1958 , brothers Jeff and Joe Foster — grandsons of Joseph W. Foster , founder of the J.W. Foster and Sons athletic skid company — originally settled on Mercury Sports Footwear . " We were advised to read the name Mercury and recount that we needed to do this through a patent agent , who discovered Mercury was already registered , " Joe Fosterexplainedin an audience originally this yr . " He said , ' You ’ll involve a new name , but do n’t just convey me one , institute me a dozen . ' He pointed through his window at a Kodak signboard and say , ' You want a name like that , it mean nothing . ' "
Joe shared the news with his brother and home , then commit out his copy ofWebster ’s Dictionaryto see what they could find . “ I call up hitchhike through this and come across the word Reebok [ rhebok ] , a faint gray South African gazelle , ” he say . “ I put this at the top of the listing , run back to our agent and said , ‘ Look , here ’s your epithet , we require this one . ’ Out of all the ace we consecrate him , Reebok was the only one that cleared . ”
2. A POSITIVE MAGAZINE REVIEW HELPED BRING THE BRAND TO THE U.S..
eBay
America was in the middle of a functional manna from heaven in 1979 , which is when Joe Foster met a man named Paul Fireman while exhibiting in Chicago . Fireman tell Joe he could lot Reebok ’s running shoe in the U.S. if the Fosters could get their snitch a five - star topology rating inRunner ’s Worldmagazine ( a publication that used lab tryout to rate place ) . " We got three five - star rating , and the Aztec [ horseshoe ] was one , " Joerecalled .
K - Mart was also interested in the Aztec . The mega - chain offer up to make a deal if the Fosters could produce 25,000 pairs and lower their price point . Given the company ’s fabrication capabilities at the time , Reebok was unable to cope with those condition . " 25,000 dyad was alluring , but it would take time , " Joe said . So they went with Fireman , who introduced Reebok to America .
3. AEROBICS CHANGED THE GAME FOR REEBOK.
In the former 1980s , aerobics was the newfitness crazesweeping America , and Reebok want in . “ In America , we were n’t know at all,”Joe Foster said , “ so when the women saw Reebok Freestyle , they did n’t think of us as male person , they did n’t think of us as sweaty , they did n’t think of us as anything more than this beautiful shoe . ” Within five years of stick in the Freestyle in 1982 , the society ’s one-year sales move from $ 4 million to$1.4 billion .
4. A 25-YEAR-OLD DESIGNED RIPLEY’S STOMPERS FORALIENS.
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Tuan Le was 25 year onetime and fresh out of design school day when he landed a caper at Reebok in the former 1980s . In aninterview withHighsnobiety , the designer recalled get the assignment to create sneakers for the James Cameron - helmed sequel to Ridley Scott’sAlien . The more experienced designers were work on aerobics place , so the job fell into Le ’s lap . He was tell that they had a mint with 20th Century Fox and that he needed to go to England to meet with the product squad and get begin on the sneaker .
After run through the playscript with the team and a prompt five - minute meeting with Cameron , Le walk away with one requirement for the dyad of Reeboks that Ripley ( Sigourney Weaver ’s character ) would wear : “ My counsel was that the brake shoe had to easily [ slide ] off her metrical unit . That was the only necessity they severalize me . There were no requirements for colour , looks , or any peculiar paper that I had to follow . The only thing that I had to follow was that it easily came off her foot . ”
When he returned back home , Le was told by his bosses at Reebok that he had to apply be basketball molds for the brake shoe , so he choose the BB 5600 and developed a design with a high profile and Velcro straps .
5. THE PUMP CHANGED THE INDUSTRY.
By the end of the ‘ 80s , Reebok was on top of the earthly concern . basketball game was the summercater of choice , and some of the best players in the NBA were running the court in advanced new Reebok models . take things to the next grade , designer Paul Litchfield start working on a organisation that would give players a custom set on the judicature because , as the ads say , “ no two feet are alike , not even your own . ” What Litchfield and the team came up with was the first ever home pompousness mechanism . After a few prototypes and some supporter from aged designer Paul Brown , The Reebok Pumpwas born in 1989 .
Not everyone could afford the $ 170 sneakers ( $ 330 when adjusted for inflation ) , but a stellar performance by a greenhorn thespian in aslam dunk contestand the futuristic tech wrench The Pump into a condition symbolization for consumer . In just 18 months , it made the brand$500 million , and pumps found their manner into nine different Reebok sportsman category , from golf to tennis . The sneaker also opened the doorway for what Reebok and other stigma could do in footing of developing performance - establish engineering science that the great unwashed would pay supererogatory for .
6. REEBOK MADE BACON FOR PALEO DIETERS.
Reebok
Reebok and CrossFit ratify a 10 - class partnership mint in 2010 , and with that get a growing subculture of people looking to sweat , lift , and eat concord to the lifestyle . The Paleo dieting is a preferent diet of CrossFit lover and one of its stars is bacon , so at the 2014 Reebok CrossFit Games , the brand gave some away from a “ Paleo Magazine - endorse meat supplier . ” The packaging featured a leaping sloven mark with cutting lines , with shoe on its hooves and the catchword “ We Believe in Bacon . ”
7. REEBOK CLASSICS MADE AN APPEARANCE AT THE ROYAL WEDDING.
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tire out sneakers to a marriage ceremony is n’t always appreciated , but when you ’re a nun and the chaplain to the faculty at Westminster Abbey , you’re able to do what you want . When photos of Prince William and Kate Middleton ’s hymeneals circulated in the press and online , people noticed that the nun sit next to the majestic match was wearing a pair of black Reeboks . It was decided by the cyberspace that both nuns in attending were either cloak-and-dagger agents or ninjas .
The Ninja Nun ’s father laterrevealed her true identityto the press and said that she “ has her trainer on most of the meter because she chance them the most comfortable things to tire . " The nun was reportedly embarrassed by the attention , but laughed when she learned of her new nickname .
8. YOU WON’T FIND WHITE BREAD OR SODA AT REEBOK HQ.
Reebok has turned the business of fittingness and healthy living into a incorporated mantra . In March of 2016 , the companyannounced thatas part of a fellowship - all-encompassing wellness initiative , it was banning heavy candy bar , white cabbage , pop , and alimentary paste from the kitchen and cafeteria at brand headquarters in Canton , Massachusetts . Employees are still permit to bring the food for thought in from home .
